runlevel: N 5 G. On Fri, 4 Feb 2005 13:15:56 +0100, Pieter Hulshoff wrote:

On Fri, Feb 04, 2005 at 06:10:32AM -0600, devosc wrote:

...

Hi, I've been running 9.1 smoothly for months... then all of a sudden yesterday I've been kicked out of the graphical boot mode and can only login via the cmd line... please.... how do I restore the graphical boot mode?

There's a couple of possiblities. One of which might be that your runlevel got changed. Check in /etc/inittab for a line like this: id:5:initdefault: The one above indicated a default runlevel of 5, which is the one including graphic mode. Check your current runlevel with the 'runlevel' command.

Regards,

Pieter Hulshoff

-- devosc

On Fri, Feb 04, 2005 at 06:28:43AM -0600, devosc wrote:

runlevel: N 5

Ok, let's try /etc/rc.d/xdm start You might also want to have a look at /var/log/XFree86.0.log to see if that gives any indication. Regards, Pieter Hulshoff

is it something to do with my iptables??? yesterday prior to this problem I heard a clicking sound inside the machine ??? and then all of a sudden my screen frooze up and after a few seconds the only thing I could do was move the mouse around but could close any windows etc.... so had to hard reboot which then prompted me with the cmd line login.... I question about th iptables because I tried to boot via the install discs and on one setting it complained about iptables.... G.

On Fri, 2005-02-04 at 07:56, devosc wrote:

I ran the /etc/rc.d/xdm start and it just said 'done'.

I didn't make any changes within the system *immediately* prior to this problem... even then at most all I have doen is just perform online updates... and its been at least a week since I did the last online update....

my cmd line usage isn't great: but after more ...XFree86.0.log

it says -XSERVTransSocketUNIXCreateListener: mkdir(/tmp/.X11-unix) failed, errno = 13 _XSERVTransMakeAllCOTSServerListeners: failed to create listener for local

Fatal server error: Cannot establish any listening sockets - Make sure an X server isn't already running

.... I'm not sure where or even how to report the full server output ?

What would happen if I ran the install disks again? could it be repaired... ?

G.

More info is needed. What version of SuSE are you using, what graphics card are you using? -- Ken Schneider UNIX since 1989, linux since 1994, SuSE since 1998 * Only reply to the list please* "The day Microsoft makes something that doesn't suck is probably the day they start making vacuum cleaners." -Ernst Jan Plugge

The Friday 2005-02-04 at 06:56 -0600, devosc wrote:

I ran the /etc/rc.d/xdm start and it just said 'done'.

runlevel 5 failed because the server failed to initialise. Do init 3, then init 5, then look at the logs. Typically it is a problem with card or driver.

I didn't make any changes within the system *immediately* prior to this problem... even then at most all I have doen is just perform online updates... and its been at least a week since I did the last online update....

my cmd line usage isn't great: but after more ...XFree86.0.log

Use "less" instead. Or 'mc'.

it says -XSERVTransSocketUNIXCreateListener: mkdir(/tmp/.X11-unix) failed, errno = 13 _XSERVTransMakeAllCOTSServerListeners: failed to create listener for local

Is 'tmp' full? Delete '/tmp/.X11-unix', perhaps.

What would happen if I ran the install disks again? could it be repaired... ?

This is not windows :-p -- Cheers, Carlos Robinson

The Friday 2005-02-04 at 19:20 -0600, devosc wrote:

hmmm.... main concern is what to do when it happens again.... I don't think reinstalling each time is going to be an option... is there anywhere that I can find documentation / faqs towards this ?

Did you try SuSE manuals? Specially the paper version. -- Cheers, Carlos Robinson

I'm logged in as root and it won't allow me to enter the .X11-unix dir, says permission denied ? G.

could you send output of # df May be your / is full --- Ken Schneider wrote:

On Fri, 2005-02-04 at 08:27, devosc wrote:

...

I'm logged in as root and it won't allow me to enter the .X11-unix dir, says permission denied ?

G.

Since you mentioned that you heard a clicking sound when the system froze up it sounds like a hard drive problem occurred which could have corrupted a file system. Before re-installing try booting to the rescue system (1st cd/dvd) and run fsck on the primary disk and see if any problems are reported. fsck should fix them unless the disk has gone bad.

-- Ken Schneider UNIX since 1989, linux since 1994, SuSE since 1998

* Only reply to the list please*

"The day Microsoft makes something that doesn't suck is probably the day they start making vacuum cleaners." -Ernst Jan Plugge

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On Fri, 2005-02-04 at 10:15, Peter B Van Campen wrote:

On Friday 04 February 2005 7:41 am, Ken Schneider wrote:

...

On Fri, 2005-02-04 at 08:27, devosc wrote:

...

I'm logged in as root and it won't allow me to enter the .X11-unix dir, says permission denied ?

G.

Since you mentioned that you heard a clicking sound when the system froze up it sounds like a hard drive problem occurred which could have corrupted a file system. Before re-installing try booting to the rescue system (1st cd/dvd) and run fsck on the primary disk and see if any problems are reported. fsck should fix them unless the disk has gone bad. Hi,

Before doing anything drastic try this: Using PICO or another editor that you like edit /etc/X11/XF86Config, find thie section that has this:

Section "Device" BoardName "0x0322" BusID "1:0:0" Driver "nvidia" Identifier "Device[0]" Screen 0

and change the "nvidia" to "nv"

He all ready reported in an earlier post that he has an ATI graphics card so this does not apply.

PeterB -- --

Proud SUSE user since 5.2 Loving SUSE 9.2 My BLOG == http://vancampen.org/blog

-- -- Ken Schneider UNIX since 1989, linux since 1994, SuSE since 1998

* Only reply to the list please* "The day Microsoft makes something that doesn't suck is probably the day they start making vacuum cleaners." -Ernst Jan Plugge

it wouldn't even let me ls -lt .X11-unix... permission denied... I tried to login in to rescue, it asked for login and I just typed root and it just showed me the cmd prompt, e.g. no password request... hard-drive may well be pushed to limit... but shouldn't be... 40 gig... how can I clean it up there are dirs that I can lose.... will rm -rf remove them permenantly ? how can I do the fsck thing. I noticed in the resuce boot up it was skipped.. my cmd line knowledge is next to nothing... G.

* devosc (Fri, Feb 04, 2005 at 08:01:33AM -0600)

it wouldn't even let me ls -lt .X11-unix... permission denied...

resiserfs ? That is, does the disk on which .X11-unix resides conatin a reiserfs ?

how can I do the fsck thing. I noticed in the resuce boot up it was skipped.. fsck /dev/hdaX where X is the number of your partition (or just try them all fdisk -l /dev/hda to list them, then fsck /dev/hda1, fsck /dev/hda2 &c &c)

Currently listening to: - RATMkillinginthename_liveswe.ai Gerhard, [faliquid@xs4all.nl] == The Acoustic Motorbiker == -- __O The sword of CharleMagne the Just, =`\<, is ferric oxide, known as rust. (=)/(=) The grizzly bear whose potent hug, was feared by all, is know a rug.

On Friday 04 February 2005 09:54, devosc wrote:

I treied to run the repair utility from the install cds and it couldn't fix the problem on the hardrive (hda2)...

So I've just had to bite the bullet and re-install, just means a weeks work is lost etc..., however I'm a bit disappointed that this has happened to me again (for the second time), last time I clearly knew it was a hard drive problem... is there something that I can do to monitor this, or try to do to ensure the system is healthy etc...

G.

Same hard drive? In my experience HD corruption is usually from running out of disk space or a hardware problem. Disk space is easy to monitor and 40GB is plenty. Be careful you don't slice your disk into lots of little partitions. With modern distros that usually causes more problems than it solves. As far as the hardware goes I'd resolve that before doing another install. Every HD maker has a free utility for checking their discs. The Seagate one works well with all disks and also tests the system HD controller and the system ram. For ongoing monitoring install smartd to monitor the SMART status of your discs. It's in the smartmontools package. Jeff

what I'll probably do is get another hardrive and use that for storing my data... I haven't partitioned the 40GB, i went ahead with th reformat... timing couldn't of been better really, was prepering to release some code for beta testing... and now have to recreate the web environment.... Thanks for the responses... G.

Also ... get the Ultimate Boot CD (http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/), it contains a lot of diag utils for hard drives.

Great link Sunny. I've been looking to update my floppy utility discs. Jeff

funny that the power supply is mentioned... months ago... and for quite a few months the machine was and became very susceptible to cutting out on me... the motherboard (or somewhere in there) would just start to make a screaching sound and would reboot but I would then have to physically reboot to stop the screaching.... In the end I had to put it to down to the power-supply.... but then I dismantled the computer and took the motherboard, hd and graphics card abroad, but never set it up, and then when I got back I set the machine back up but only once after a good few months got the screaching sound... last week actually.... I built the pc from scratch and during the screaching saga... I realized that I didn't put enought thermo paste on the chip.... However at the time I didn't buy a new powersupply.... I will look into it (the link above) but will have to find out what power supply is best compatible for Soyo SY-KT400, 300 or 350 watts... ahh I had a hell of time trying to spec together the bits for this linux machine... actually it all started out because on my other machine I never realized about the graphic card option during the install... anyway... hardrives... so presumably even if partitioned the hd, and ran into corruption problems I still be at a loss because those partitions are still on the same disk.... Although a pain data retrieval is not that much of a problem (he reckons!) because most of the time the work ends up on other servers... the biggest pain is all those tweaks to get the os running the way it was.... G.

Yeah.. i do try, but also question of resources etc.. also for a while I was running off a Toshiba Satellite A30... ran great for about 3 months and then after that seemed to start overheating, so had to pack that up and reassemble the workstation. G.

devosc wrote:

funny that the power supply is mentioned... months ago... and for quite a few months the machine was and became very susceptible to cutting out on me... the motherboard (or somewhere in there) would just start to make a screaching sound and would reboot but I would then have to physically reboot to stop the screaching.... In the end I had to put it to down to the power-supply.... but then I dismantled the computer and took the motherboard, hd and graphics card abroad, but never set it up, and then when I got back I set the machine back up but only once after a good few months got the screaching sound... last week actually....

I built the pc from scratch and during the screaching saga... I realized that I didn't put enought thermo paste on the chip....

However at the time I didn't buy a new powersupply.... I will look into it (the link above) but will have to find out what power supply is best compatible for Soyo SY-KT400, 300 or 350 watts... ahh I had a hell of time trying to spec together the bits for this linux machine... actually it all started out because on my other machine I never realized about the graphic card option during the install...

anyway... hardrives... so presumably even if partitioned the hd, and ran into corruption problems I still be at a loss because those partitions are still on the same disk....

Although a pain data retrieval is not that much of a problem (he reckons!) because most of the time the work ends up on other servers... the biggest pain is all those tweaks to get the os running the way it was....

G.

I had one that started doing strange things. It was the power supply. All the voltages were OK except the 12v had gone to 16v. Took out sound and modem cards. They just did not like more voltage that they were supposed to have. You can not measure the voltages unless the power supply is hooked to the motherboard. I just put the probes into each connector on the power supply. You need to have the pin-out of that plug. Good luck. Bob Rawlinson

I installed the smartmontools from the 9.1 distro cds, but it prompted (informed) me to perform a text first prior to enabeling in the run level editor.. can someone provide the syntax to use... I tried smartcl -t but it wants to know about a device? Also, if not too much trouble, could some provide a short list of steps (commands) to perform (regularly) in order to get check / correct the disks... especially if after having to do a hard reboot... I did try fsck but it said current drive had write permissions.... ??? G.

devosc wrote:

I installed the smartmontools from the 9.1 distro cds, but it prompted (informed) me to perform a text first prior to enabeling in the run level editor.. can someone provide the syntax to use... I tried smartcl -t but it wants to know about a device?

It uses the same device description as other Linux tools: /dev/hda, /dev/hdb, etc. Note that /dev/hda refers to a drive while /dev/hda1 refers to the first partition on that drive. So your command should be: smartctl -a /dev/hda. Another command line tip. Most, but not all, programs will take -h or --help as an option. This usually lists the most common options available. Also man <program name> will usually give you a detailed description of the available options and sometimes some examples of syntax and usage.

Also, if not too much trouble, could some provide a short list of steps (commands) to perform (regularly) in order to get check / correct the disks... especially if after having to do a hard reboot...

I did try fsck but it said current drive had write permissions.... ???

The system automatically checks for inconsistent file systems at boot up. I suspect you tried fsck on a partition that was mounted. The drive that contains your OS needs to be checked by booting a rescue disk and running fsck from the command line. Other mounted drives can be unmounted and checked while the system is up. Unlike some other operating systems, Linux file systems don't need to be checked regularly. If you have problems with file corruption or crashes it's caused by another problem and that problem needs to be resolved. Jeff

I tried to create a rescue disk and the computer just kept cutting out on me, which is strange compared to the amount of usage required during a complete install... anyway I'm off to *try* and get a 400Watt power supply, I suspect that this is the cause of the problem, I'm currently using a 300Watt ps and from a quick look on the web I've seen a site offering the same motherboard with a 400Watt supply, so I'm going with the assumption that this is a more suitable one to use.. it's just that at the time of purchasing the compononents I didn't find anything suggesting a suitable ps for the SOYO KT400... well lets hope I pick something up today... and that the 400Watt doesn't cause any harm etc.... BTW, I enabled 'smartd' in the runlevel configuration and the system didn't hang after reboot.... I presume 'smartd' is totally different from S.M.A.R.T something or another which my bios says is not available.... Cheers, G.

The Saturday 2005-02-05 at 09:37 -0600, devosc wrote:

I tried to create a rescue disk and the computer just kept cutting out on me, which is strange compared to the amount of usage required

Create? :-O Why don't you simply use SuSE install dvd/cd? It is the rescue system we are refering to... -- Cheers, Carlos Robinson

Well, in my attempt to determine where / what the problem was I think I blew my my motherboard.... wahey!... ahh... [$52.53] Motherboard SOYO KT600: http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=MB-KT600V2&show=p [$70.04] Memory 512MB: http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=D512M266KI [$82.40] Ahtlon XP-220 CPU + Heat Sink & Fan: http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=XP-2200BX [$28.32] Mid-Tower Case & 350W Power Supply: http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=CA-ST103KU Total: $233.29 + shipping & tax... Well my local pc shop wanted $70 just to look at the machine and then tell me what I need to spend, where their cheapest motherboard is $125... so I might as well start a fresh ? Could someone care to comment on the above specs... I just need a workstation running with a webserver environment for development purposes... I left out the graphics card as this time I'm going to presume that the one on the motherboard will be ok, according to Soyo the motherboard is Linux compatible... plus I might be lucky and my existing ATI 9000 graphics card may still work etc... I'll test out my hard-drive on another pc... G.

:) well don't ask me what happened but I stripped everything out, and tried the hd in another (very old) box.. the hard drive booted up... so I then powered up the my KT400 and things looked good, i.e. the cpu fan was spinning... :) so.... now I'm doing another fresh install... I think when I plugged in the hard drive into the other machine it tried to configure to that graphics card and so the quickest way for me to try and see whether the sys is operable is to try out another install... I don't know how to manually config a graphics card etc... It might of been in my abruptness that I plugged the ide leads into the wrong slots initially... actually the last time the pc was screaching I unplugged the hard drive, cd rom and cd burner... then to still hear the screaching which lead(s) me to believe it is the power supply (and left me panicing when I couldn't then reboot)... I was going to quickly buy a new power supply... but if my pc gets up and running again I think I'll save a few bucks and wait for the postman... I did previously try to a get cpu fan but I chose the wrong one, i.e. it wouldn't fit... so I may try a new one of those as well... the problem with ewiz.com is that you get what you choose, and pictures (etc) can be deceiving especially if your not in the know... So seeing that when I tried the install it saw my 512MB of memory and the mere fact that I'm seeing images on the screen must mean (fingers crossed) nothing got burnt... Fingers crossed.... I just can't face a crash during mission critical stuff etc... G.